German extreme swimmer Andre Wiersig was undoubtedly under a lot of stress prior and during his attempted swim from Mahe to La Digue two days ago, which brings us today to the issue of stress management in sports, a prerequisite to perhaps avoid a similar fate suffered by the German.
Stress management in sports
What is stress?
Stress can be defined as physical or emotional demand and tend to disturb the balance or imbalance of the body.
Any kind of pressure due to sports competition, training, job, school, work, marriage, illness, or death of a loved one can develop into stress.
How do I know if I am stressed?
Emotional stress includes:
Being easily agitated
Frustrated
Moody
Losing control
Having hard time relaxing and quieting your mind.
Feeling sorry for yourself
Crying
Feeling guilty.
Self-defeating
Physical stress include:
Muscle tensions
Fatigue
Headaches
Loss of appetite
Shaking
Aggressive
Restless
Heart rate
General illness or injuries
Sports stressors:
No proper training
No practice matches
Underperforming in training and competition
Conflict between athletes or coaches
Unknown opponent
Pressure to get results
Pressure from previous results
Images of failure and embarrassments
Returning from injuries
Competition for qualification
Pressure turn into stress when you feel unable to cope. Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms like anxiety or irritability, depression and panic attack.
Good and bad pressure
Is pressure good or bad? Your answer determines how likely you are to be affected by high pressure situation.
If you perceive pressure as negative, you will associate it with negative thoughts process such as self-doubt.
However, if you perceive pressure as a positive feeling, its signs could improve your performance. The key is to reframe pressure to make it seem positive.
Eustress
What is Eustress? Pronounced as (yoo stress)
Eustress is the first type and simple definition states as a positive form of stress. It is an essential ingredient of your life as it provides the necessary motivation to perform well in challenges such as competitions, interviews and exams to name a few. This type helps you move forward and help fire up to face all the hurdles that get your way.
Distress
You will experience this type when you are faced with major changes and alteration of your daily living, most time they are unexpected changes. This type can have huge impact on your health leading to such things as: headaches, loss or gain appetite, depression, loss interest in daily living and many other illnesses.
How you recognise of being under pressure; it can be as simple as you feel your heart rate going up, and have butterfly in stomach. .
One method to remedy the situation, the athletes need to be exposed to more pressure training to better prepare them for pressure competitions. This will allow them to make mistakes in training, and rectify them before the competition proper.
Nervousness during competitions
You are always going to be nervous teeing up in a major championship.
It is very natural and it’s a good thing. It means that you want and are ready to compete.
So one sign or symptom disturbed by one athlete may not be what another athlete experiences.
When it comes to dealing with stress, there are some helpful tactics that athletes can use:
‒ Take a break; keep a realistic schedule for training.
‒ Allow time for personal exercise
‒ Apply breathing techniques and guided meditation
‒ Spend time with those closer to you
‒ Keep up with your hobbies
‒ Laughing is a good therapy.
‒ If there is a need see a counselor.
Consideration to refer athletes for counseling or psychotherapy.
1. How long has the issue existed?
2. What is the severity?
3. How does it relate to other factors in the person’s life?
4. Does that person display usual emotion or behaviours around the issue? 5. Does the athlete have the capacity to address that issue?
Best thing to do is talk to a counselor or psychotherapy
All coaches should be concerned with athletes who have stress and anxiety over a long period of time as they may experience negative health outcomes. They are likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The coach or team manager needs to help the athletes use counseling centres, and other techniques to help limit their stress.
Let’s take care of our athletes, starting with the athletes themselves
